GOTY 2020

[Mogri]

Year's not over, but it's close. We all know what it'll be remembered for, but 2020 wasn't all bad. What's your GOTY selection(s)? Is it new or just new to you?

For me, if either of Hades or Monster Train had been the only game released this year, it would still have been one of the better years in gaming.

Hades entered early access a year or two back, but it only recently became a "finished" game. I'm sure I don't need to sing its praises; I won't be alone in naming it here.

Monster Train came out of nowhere. There has been no shortage of deckbuilding roguelites following the smash success of Slay the Spire, but this one stands head and shoulders above them all, unseating Spire and Dream Quest as far as I'm concerned. That's no small praise: Slay the Spire is my most-played game on Steam, and Monster Train is quickly catching up to it.

Special mention to Super Mario 35. I wouldn't have guessed I'd be putting hours into a game nearly my own age, but Mario 35 polishes the old game and puts just enough of a spin on it to keep me coming back.

 

[YangusKhan]

Probably Final Fantasy VII Remake. I haven't played a lot of 2020 new releases

 

[MetManMas]

Animal Crossing: New Horizons, no contest. The furniture may be lacking compared to the less HD games, but it gave me Photopia. And for that...

Spoiler: Photo Stoofs

https://twitter.com/x/status/1306787566436462594

https://twitter.com/x/status/1310299806561050624

https://twitter.com/x/status/1315705566275072000

https://twitter.com/x/status/1318794544029126657

https://twitter.com/x/status/1322743648971227136

...I am very thankful.

If there's ever any Photopia-relevant DLC I am there.

Moon was also pretty nice.

 

[Falselogic]

Probably Hades. I don't know if I played any other games made/completed in 2020 this year.

Boy am I forgetful. It's going to be Animal Crossing: New Horizons! I've avoided looking at how much time Ive played this game but I play it every day. It seems such a normal part of my life now that I didn't even realize that it only came out this year!

 

[upupdowndown]

Hades really is a remarkable accomplishment

 

[Vaeran]

Unless Age of Calamity blows my mind it's probably gonna be Final Fantasy VII Remake for me. A combination of wonderful nostalgia and an exciting promise of what's to come is pretty hard to beat. The battle system was tons of fun, and I really enjoyed how much the world and characters got fleshed out. Can't wait for the next part.

2020's Non-2020 Game of the Year Award goes to Final Fantasy XIV, which I got back into after two false starts years ago, and this time it actually stuck. To an almost frightening degree, to be honest -- aside from about an hour of Super Mario Galaxy I literally haven't played anything else since mid-August. I'm on the second expansion (of three so far), Stormblood, and am loving my time with this game. I'm really glad I was able to get over my dumb anxieties about multiplayer content and appreciate everything it has to offer.

 

[Olli]

Animal Crossing.

 

[madhair60]

Did A Short Hike come out this year? That. Or Horace, if that came out this year and A Short Hike didn't. If neither of those came out this year, then no game is the game of the year. Wait, Destiny 2. It's Destiny 2.

 

[Pajaro Pete]

it's once again Baba is You for redefining what a video game can be

 

[Destil]

It has to be Hades, right?

Like the biggest reason that it's not necessary a lock for game of the decade is Supergiant will likely put out one or two more games before it's over...

 

[conchobhar]

WATTAM. Technically it came out last December, but the physical release didn't happen until this year, and I was waiting on that, so I'm going to count it. If ports are allowed, then my runner-up is moon: Remix RPG adventure.

 

[RT-55J]

I don't know what a videogame is, but The King in Yellow Borders is a strong contender for the best ZZT game of 2020.

 

[Regulus]

It's either Fae Tactics or Hades for me. Half-Life: Alyx was also excellent, though I didn't replay the hell Hades out of it like the other two.

 

[Kazin]

Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers, and I haven't even beaten the patch content yet (though I'll be rectifying that sometime this month).

 

[demi]

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.

I finished it last night and couldn't have been more impressed with the game! It's the best dub I've ever heard in my life tied to an incredible localization: to say it was an equal pleasure visually would be an understatement. Also: the soundtrack...!

 

[Paul le Fou]

Gotta be Animal Crossing. Without getting into what it means to be GOTY or what a good game is or whatever, Animal Crossing ate an astonishing number of my hours at a time when I (and a lot of people) needed it most. On Halloween I logged in for the first time in 2 months to visit my friend's decorated island for the holiday; I got dressed up, did some trick-or-treating on my own island, enjoyed my friend's decorations and costumes, caught up with my villagers, and it's still just...such a nice game. Even if it's off-and-on I imagine I'll still be playing it for years to come.

I harken back to something Justin said on the AC episode of Besties, too - it's the most important video game of the year, maybe even the decade, just for what it was and when it was that. A lot of that has to do with timing and context outside of the game's content, but so what? That doesn't change anything.

 

[chud_666]

Streets of Rage IV
Wasteland 3

 

[karzac]

My games of the year are definitely Hades and Crusader Kings 3, although Hades feels a bit weird to put in the list since I've been playing it for 2 years. The best games I played this year, that didn't come out this year, have been Outer Wilds (which I actually started last December), Sekiro and A Short Hike.

 

[Kishi]

Every game released in 2020 that I've played in 2020, ranked:

4. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
3. Resident Evil 3
2. Streets of Rage 4
1. Final Fantasy VII Remake

 

[WildcatJF]

I've mostly played older stuff this year, and two of the three 2020 releases I've actually played are remakes of older games (Trials of Mana and Xenoblade), so I'm tentatively giving the edge to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was a phenomenal retooling of the formula that was a very big piece of therapy over the past few months. I've gotten a bit bored the past couple months, but I can see myself getting back into it with a big update (October was close to reeling me back in full time, but I fell off again when I got XCOM 2 lol). I'll see if this holds after two more months!

 

[Zef]

It's not even close

Over five thousand (5000) (5k) ( 五千) photos taken, and close to 20Gb of video clips.

Over 268 hours played.

I haven't played FF7Remake, but I probably would've just played through once for the story and then moved on to something else for a while.

I just can't ever tire of this game, especially once the (free!) massive multiplayer expansion, Got Legends, came out.

I can't wait to get a PS5 to see how a PS4 Pro would've handled these visuals.

(And you can pet the fox.)

 

[Alixsar]

- FFVIIR made me love my least favorite FF cast, so uh...it had to have done SOMETHING right
- Hades I haven't even played yet but feel very confident it will be on this list
- Streets of Rage 4 is a good beat 'em up. Honest I liked the cease-and-desisted fanmade SoR Remake from like 10 years ago more, but hey; official SoR4! That's sick
- Genshin Impact is in some ways better and in some ways worse than Breath of the Wild, married with grindy mechanics, insane gatcha nonsense, and anime babes and himbos. Basically made in a lab to appeal to me. Even if you don't wanna stick with it or pay for anything, just using the default characters and exploring the world is fun. Great soundtrack too, and not graphically intensive while still being visually appealing. It's kinda wild for a free-to-play game!
- Deep Rock Galactic: co-op 4 player online horde mode Minecraft class based shooter? Uhhhhhhhh fuck yes?
- Paradise Killer is a first person open world adventure murder mystery with an incredible soundtrack. It's ultimately got a super weird story that doesn't have much in a way of a "message", but I still had a blast with it.
- I haven't played Animal Crossing in months, but it's good. I don't LOVE all the changes they made, but regardless, it's a good one of those.

Runner-Up:
- Trials of Mana was fine but ultimately kinda boring. I guess they patched a super difficult mode in later, which might be better, but the AI is so bad that I imagine it'd just be more frustrating? Idk, but it's perfectly fine.
- Bloodstained Not the SotN One The Other One 2 was pretty cool

2020 Specific Stuff:
- A bunch of existing fighting games got fixes to their online infrastructure due to Covid making real-life play impossible. This change was WAYYYYYYYYYYY overdue, but it finally happened, so now playing fighting games at home is still less than ideal but a much better option. Hopefully more games will get updates (come on SamSho7 and Soul Calibur 6!!)
- I played Divinity Original Sin 2 with 3 friends, and having the weekly get together helped create SOME sense of normalcy in this deeply stupid year. We're playing Neverwinter Nights now, another friend and I are playing this weird game called Outward, and some other friends are playing Baldur's Gate III (which I'm not counting since it's not done, but is real good), and I'm glad we all have these shared RPG experiences to get us all through this nonsense.

Bracket of Shame:
- I've complained about it before but Destiny 2 made a bunch of system changes that I completely hate, and they just dropped a new expansion, but I can never play it because of how much I hate those changes. What a drag.
- Doom 2k16 rules and was basically perfect in every way. All Doom Eternal had to do was keep going. Instead, they introduced great new mechanics...but also introduced new/shitty/unfun enemies that ruin the flow of combat and took away the goofy story of Doom 2k16 and put in it's place an extremely weak hard sci-fi story that sucked all the joy out of Doom 2k16's foundation. I WANT to call it a disaster, but it's technically great and well-made it's just...the last time I felt this straight up disappointed by a game was Devil May Cry 2, and that's really saying something. A complete letdown and absolute bummer of a experience.

The Wait-and-Sees:
- Cyberpunk has gotten delayed a bunch, and is ALSO something made in a lab for me. An RPG from the Witcher folks that combines RPG and shooter gameplay, set in a future sci-fi world. ALL of that is stuff I like...but lots of questionable content and controversy is surrounding the game and I just don't know if it's gonna be what I want, or if I want to support CDPR for forcing crunch on people. I dunno, we'll see.
- Demon's Souls 2.0 looks...possibly neat but it's hard to say, and hell if I'm gonna hunt down a PS5 right now. I'll get it eventually I'm sure but...we'll see.

 

[Lokii]

For 2020 games made in 2020 and played in 2020 and were a salve for 2020 it's gotta be Blaseball.

 

[Aeonus]

Man, I play so few games in their launch year these days. There's only like 3 games that qualify?

I suppose I have to give the honor to Risk of Rain 2. Even though I technically bought it in 2019, I didn't play much until the last couple updates before the 2020 v1.0 release. It took a while to grow on me even then, and I still think the original RoR is more fun to play.

That said, I expect that FF7 Remake (which I expect to get for Xmas) and/or Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity will overtake it when I get to play them.

 

[fanboymaster]

FFVII Remake had extraordinary pre-built emotional cache for me, but that can just as easily turn into loathing if not handled properly, it's my favorite game this year by a mile. Wonderful expansion of what was so compelling about FFVII as a cast and setting, the game I keep thinking about unprompted all year.

 

[Peklo]

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is only two stages long (soon four!), and as such the full release may be regarded as a 2021 game in the future, but even so it's clearly the choice. Touhou Spell Bubble is one of the best competitive puzzlers I've played, and serves as a heartfelt love letter and bittersweet reminiscence to Puzzle Bobble at large. Trials of Mana was my favourite remake in a year not lacking for them.

 

[MJG]

1 Hades
2 One Step From Eden
3 Paradise Killer
4 Monster Train
5 Littlewood

I spent most of the year thinking One Step From Eden and Monster Train were a near-lock for 1-2, only for both to get slightly bumped over the past month or so, so I would not be surprised at all for something else to creep up there before the year is out.

 

[Vaeran]

Honorable mention goes to the gorgeous Ghost of Tsushima, which I was thoroughly enjoying until FFXIV showed up to hold my brain hostage for three months

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Probably Final Fantasy VII Remake. I haven't played a lot of 2020 new releases

 

[Gaer]

Only discrete standalone video game I played that was released this year is Phenotopia: Awakening.

But the 5.3 patch of FFXIV: Shadowbringers was one of the most emotional experiences I’ve had in gaming.

Yes, it’s because of the emotional involvement I’ve had with the story since the was game released in 2013. But the culmination of so many plot threads and characters I’ve loved, finally finding resolution was just a shocking experience.

I know this sounds crazy to someone who hasn’t played through the whole MSQ, and were I one of them I’d still not believe it.

But it’s true. All of it.